An impressionist painter, Peter Bela Mayer is primarily known for his views of the New England landscape and locations near his home on Long Island at Port Washington.

He was born in Hungary and added the name Peter in the 1940s to avoid confusion with female painters. From 1908 to 1915, he studied at the National Academy of Design. He first earned public attention in 1914 when one of his pieces was shown at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC. During the 1920s, he exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Brooklyn Museum.

Source: 300 Years of American Art, by Michael David Zellman

Bela Mayer, landscape painter and textile designer, was born in Loeche, Hungary, 1887. It is not known when he immigrated to the United States; however he enrolled at the National Academy of Design in New York City in 1908. For the next seven years he would study art there under the tutelage of C. Y. Turner, Ivan Olinsky and E. Ward.

After finishing his schooling, Mayer moved to Long Island, and would stay in the New England area all of his life. He visited Gloucester and other locations on Cape Anne, Massachusetts.

Sometime during the 1940s, Bela Mayer added the Peter to his name in order to distance himself from female artists with his same first name. Though he changed his name, his belief that "balance is the most important element in a painting" never wavered; he was quoted saying this at a showing of his work in Roslyn, New Jersey in 1984.

His Impressionist paintings combine the organic lines of nature perfectly with the more structural and geometric lines of man in a non-abrasive, harmonious manner. He spent his time outdoors painting towns along the Hudson and around his home in Long Island.

He passed away in 1992.